E-Commerce

The European Union's second-highest court has struck down the regulatory approval of the merger of Sony Music and the music business of Bertelsmann nearly two years after the deal was completed. While the decision could force the undoing of the earlier merger, which created Sony BMG, it may also und...

Although comparison shopping motivates many a consumer to shop online, it's second fiddle for small businesses shopping on the Net, according to a study released by JupiterResearch last Friday. The most significant factor governing purchases on the Web by small businesses is previous experience or f...

Google is planning to open a new, 1,000-employee facility in Michigan that will handle its highly profitable AdWords operations -- but Google watchers using this particular decision to augur the company's direction are likely wasting their time. Other than reinforcing Google's intention to continue ...

Though well-intentioned, services that scrub potentially offensive material from DVDs and then resell them as family-friendly versions are violating copyright laws, a court has ruled. U.S. District Court Judge Richard Matsch ruled in favor of major Hollywood studios by saying that a number of compan...

One in five Americans age 12 or older own a digital music player, according to a study released last week by a global market research firm. The study, which is prepared quarterly by Ipsos Insight of New York City, noted that younger music listeners are driving growth in the DMP market, with some 54 ...

eBay has determined the Google Checkout system, which launched last week after months of speculation, is not an acceptable form of payment for eBay auctions or fixed-price sales. Checkout, which launched amid swirling questions about how a Google payment system would impact eBay's own PayPal, does n...

With the fallout from its messy divorce with Toys "R" Us still reverberating around the Internet, Amazon.com on Thursday launched replacements for what was one of the most popular departments in its virtual mega-store. Amazon, which handled online sales for toysrus.com for about five years before th...

In the competitive world of the Internet circa 2006, text is getting plenty of company. In addition to other forms of content that are crowding the printed word, the Internet is rapidly becoming populated with video. It's rare to see more than a few days pass without a video-related announcement fro...

Google defended its system of ranking Web pages in search results in court Friday after a competitor claimed its pages were unfairly blocked. A California judge is considering whether to allow a lawsuit to proceed. Attorneys for Google argued that the search giant can use any criteria it wants to ra...

A new study by ABI Research indicates that an array of semiconductor developers have designed US$10 chipsets for receiving and displaying TV on mobile phones -- a price point that marks the first important benchmark for the growth of mobile phone-based TV and video applications. "This ramp-up in mar...

Yahoo has reached a tentative agreement to settle a class action lawsuit. The portal and search company agreed to pay millions in attorneys fees and potentially may have to refund millions more in advertising revenue. The settlement, which was given preliminary approval Wednesday by U.S. District J...

Sending a competitive shot across the bow of e-tailers such as Amazon and eBay, Google Thursday launched its long-rumored online payment system, now known as Google Checkout. Checkout launches with a handful of major online merchants having signed up, including Jockey, the Starbucks Store, Levi's, D...

Reaching the Millennial Generation -- a label nailed to nine- to 28-year-olds, a group which, at some 79 million in the United States, is larger than the Baby Boomers -- poses some real challenges for marketers, especially marketers entrenched in their mass media ways. "The key thing to recognize wh...

In the early days of the Web, smart small Internet businesses could compete with just about anyone by working to make sure their Web pages were found first on search engines. Fast forward 10 years. Search engines have become increasingly sophisticated. Paid search listings have exploded into the pic...

In the midst of social networking zeitgeist, many advertisers find themselves torn. The lure of the young demographic that flocks to sites such as MySpace and FaceBook is powerful, but the risks many. The recent case of a 16-year-old being lured into traveling to the Middle East is just the latest ...